Over the past couple years, we have shared love from a lot of view points. I have been moved to write while watching my pets, seeing those close to me pass away, doing weddings, being inspired by others, and simply watching life pass by in a variety of ways.
I have shared about loving those who are special to us, those who are hard to love, and those who have wronged us. I am sure I have missed some ways to write about loving others and one such way struck me this morning.
Sometimes those close to us seem to make it difficult for us to like them. Of course, we never stop loving them but sometimes we go unappreciated and taken for granted. Sometimes those close to us behave badly and we wonder why we try so hard to make life better for them. We regularly give of ourselves while they go on their merry way seemingly not noticing all that we do for them. Did you ever cry out, "Why do I bother?" Do we ever wonder what they would do without us? Do we ever want to take a trip for a month just so they could see what they were missing? Maybe you haven't, but I sure have. One of the worst things is to be taken for granted isn't it? One of the worst things is to have all your love and caring go unnoticed, unappreciated, and not be reciprocal.
How about those who are not close to you? Maybe a person in the workplace or at school. Perhaps you have a person in your life that is not well liked and is regularly unpleasant. Maybe you read a blog on some website that tells you to love everyone and you have been giving it your best effort. But try as you may, that person is rude to you and pushes you away. It seems like they could use a friend. It seems like they are lost and alone and you offer your friendship but it gets rejected over and over. Still you try but some days it just doesn't seem worth the effort. That old feeling of being unappreciated wells up within you and you wish you could just give up. The problem is that there is something about you that just won't let you.
Then, there is the person who wronged you. You forgive them and make effort after effort to heal the relationship but they want nothing to do with you. You continually open the door to restoration but they keep slamming it shut. It is particularly difficult when you are the one who has been wronged isn't it? They did something to you. They hurt you. They broke your trust. Yet, they are the one who rejects you! How dare they!
Could there be one person in your life that has experienced all these things with you? Do you think every one of us has a person who has cared for us, loved us yet been unappreciated, ignored, overlooked, and wronged by us? Could there be a person in our life that has done all they could for us and we barely even notice what they have done? "Impossible," you say? It seems if we had done all that to someone we would certainly know it. If we had acted like that, we might not have such a great opinion of ourselves. If we have acted like that toward someone and they still think of us as a friend, they would have to be someone very special.
This morning it struck me there is such a person in my life like that. It is God. You might be saying, "Really? I don't treat God like that!" My response to that would be, "Really?"
I could write on about all the ways we take God for granted, ignore Him, mistreat Him, and wrong Him, and how He keeps loving us in spite of how we treat Him. I could write about how He has given everything to us. I could point out how He has given us all He has to offer which is, well, everything, including everlasting life.
I ask that you take a moment right now to look over your relationship with God and see if you have responded to how He has loved you with a similar love. Take a moment right now to reflect on your relationship and see if it really is what it should be.
Pause for a moment, reflect and when you are done, perhaps have a little conversation with God. That should not be a problem because He is always there for you. He is never too busy for you. He is never with a person He loves more. Getting a moment of His time to chat shouldn't be a problem because you always have His ear. When you call, He always answers, day or night, rain or sun. He is always there loving you with the kind of love only God has. Take a moment and see what happens. It may have been a long time since you talked and you might be surprised what He has to say.
One thing you should not be surprised at though.
He loves you, always has, and always will.
No matter what!